Karina was obviously more than worried about whatever was behind them. She redoubled her efforts to clear a path through the rotting corpses with her wickedly spinning spear, knocking bodies out of her way to the left and to the right. Her movements became a bit erratic, but the zombies still never had a chance. Reece took the hint and energized the bike, squealing the rear tire before taking off after the lilitu who was pureeing everything in her path as she ran through the throng of the undead. He quickly caught up to her when they were only about three-fourths of the way across the mass of zombies.
When she detected that he was behind her, she turned her spear across her body and quite literally began plowing the road. Reece kept up with her, noticing that he was still going sixty-five kilometers per hour. As soon as they fought their way clear, they sped to the other side of the clearing. Another grouping of cars and trucks had kept the zombies corralled into this small section of the highway and now blocked their path too.
Reece noticed that old squat metal barriers stood on either side of the highway. These were originally designed to keep vehicles from driving off the road and into the deep ditches on either side. Combined with the vehicle blockades, it was an effective enclosure for the undead. Reece glanced back at the first blockade of vehicles behind them.
From over the wreckage leaped a dreaded hulking undead wolf creature. It looked like the ones they had fought before. However, as it closed on them, this one looked a lot bigger than those earlier beasts. The monstrosity was soon joined by its friends. A couple dozen of the beasts started biting and clawing their way through the zombies to get at the fleeing pair. Even slowed by the zombies, the wolves were still gaining on them.
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Dread Wolf (Undead Canine)
“Keep following me and don’t slow down for anything!” repeated the lilitu girl as her eyes grew wide.
Taking her own advice, Karina picked up the pace as she ran towards the barrier of cars and trucks, aiming for a weak point. Reece used the bike to keep up with her as she charged into a small blue car and knocked it to the side. It was just enough for Reece to squeeze through. He despaired when he saw a large van blocking the path about five meters up. It became short-lived when Karina used her spear as a lever to tip the van over onto its side, clearing the rest of the way out for Reece.
Once he saw his way clear, he energized the bike and took off at its maximum acceleration. He could now hear the huge wolf creatures loping right behind him. Their snapping and growling frequently interrupted their heavy guttural panting. When the highway opened back up, Reece took a moment to glance behind him. There were at least six beasts chasing him. Their blood and spittle frothing from their maws.
They were almost on top of him, the closest being only a couple of meters back. The beastly things loped after the speeding pair with exceptional swiftness, keeping up with Reece’s solar cycle at nearly its top speed. He finally started slowly pulling away from the creatures, creating some much-needed space between them and him. His gains were short-lived.
He rounded a curve in the highway and saw another pile-up about a half-kilometer away. Karina saw it too and put on the breaks, sliding in her big black boots and planting her spear into a crack in the middle of the lane. The closest monster wolf hit it at top speed and skewered itself through its maw. Karina used the beast’s momentum to tilt her spear in an arc along the creature’s trajectory and slammed it down on the highway with a wet thump. It bounced twice more before finally rolling to a bloody stop. She immediately took off after Reece’s bike. Reece kept going as fast as he dared. Trying to stay calm, he quickly approached the maze of broken-down vehicles. Behind them, where the lead beast had died, more wolf creatures leaped its body as they continued the chase.
Reece kept his eyes trained on the barrier ahead of him. He scanned it desperately, looking for any path through the metallic carnage of vehicles. Before he gave in to despair, he managed to spot a way through the mess. It wasn’t exactly a straight shot, but it’s all he had. Reece maneuvered the bike at a break-neck pace through a curve to the right and then a hard curve to the left and finally another straight shot out of the chaos. The slow-down cost him, however. Two particularly grotesque wolves had managed to get on either side of him. Cars and trucks were still strewn here and there on the road.
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Reece kept his speed maximized anyways, speeding around them when necessary. The individual obstacles helped to slow the beasts down just a bit and Reece was able to pull out in front enough to regain some breathing room. He took a chance and checked behind him again. The beasts seemed to have multiplied as more of the pack had joined in the chase from the surrounding woods. At least twelve of the beasts were still right on his tail, all within fifty meters.
More were coming from the woods and further back down the highway. Reece could swear that they seemed to be multiplying and drawing ever closer. Rounding a slight bend, he noticed a military chopper coming up on the right side of the highway. It must have landed there sometime in the past and now the aircraft’s blades covered two-thirds of the road. Thinking quickly, he aimed his Helios for it and poured on the speed. As he zoomed just past the nose of the helicopter’s cockpit, he was going over two-hundred and fifty kilometers per hour.
Once he was clear of the blades, he risked a glance back. The monstrous wolf-creatures had somehow managed to keep up with him. Reece simply smirked as they fell into his impromptu trap. The first two giant wolves didn’t even know what hit them. The first one hit the helicopter blade hanging out over the front of the cockpit. The same one that Reece had just passed underneath. The beast’s momentum took off the top of its head as it impacted with the blade.
The force of the collision turned the rotor with such force that the trailing blade sliced into the following creature’s entire right side, goring it badly. Two more of the mutant beasts got tied up in the mess, breaking a couple of legs and crashing into the helicopter’s cockpit. One even got a leg cleanly lopped off by the remains of the first blade. Neither of the latter two wolves was killed, but they were out of the chase...at least for the time being.
Karina caught up to Reece, nodding in approval of his tactics. She continued using her spear to devastating effect against the ravenous monster wolves. Whenever one got too close, she took out a paw, leg, or maw...effectively ending its chase. It seemed to Reece that for every single one they took out of the hunt, three more managed to join in. They hit a straightaway and Reece took the opportunity to assess their situation.
He noticed more of the giant bloody wolves joining the chase. They were still coming out of the woods that ran all along the highway. Some were even coming out of the tree line from up ahead of them. Reece cursed under his breath. There was no telling how many of them were out there or even if he could get through these new few. He glanced at Karina and her face was an impenetrable mask. The only emotion he could discern was determination.
She glanced back and nodded imperceptibly before peeling off to deal with the wolves that were coming up the side of the highway to cut them off. She cut the first one in half with sheer power and momentum before they even noticed the small girl. Reece flew past as she dealt with the four others. With Karina preoccupied and no better option, Reece continued flying down the highway at the bike’s maximum velocity. He silently thanked the old gods for the Helios. Any other bike and they would have certainly caught him by now, and he had no desire to become puppy chow. Looking back, he could still see a handful of wolves keeping up with him.
The chase continued for many kilometers until the highway crossed a large river. Reece’s heart sank as he saw that the bridge had collapsed. Karina still hadn’t caught up with him yet, but somehow, he knew that at least she was okay. The remains of a fighter jet, an F-22 Raptor by the looks of it...were spread out all around the area. Apparently, it had somehow been brought down and had crashed into the bridge.
A couple of semi-trucks had been parked on the near side, a few meters short of the highway’s sudden drop off into the river below. There didn’t look like there was a way though, and even if there was...the highway ended just past them. Reece just gritted his teeth and sped towards certain death. Better an instant death from the crash than being pulled apart and eaten by giant rotting wolves.
As he reached the point of no return, Reece grew calm as the certainty of his future became clear. In a few seconds, he would be dead. He smiled grimly, but never let up on the throttle. He continued pouring as much juice into the bike’s engine as it would allow. When he hit the semis, he wanted to hit them hard. He hoped there wouldn’t be enough of him left for the wolves to eat. His last act of defiance would be to deny them a meal. It wasn’t much, but it was all that he had. The thoughts flew through his mind in a split second as he barreled towards the two trucks, the instruments of his demise.
Perhaps it was his impending death, but everything came into perfectly clear focus and time seemed to slow to a crawl. The truck on the left was navy blue with a blue trailer with white lettering on the side that read “Amazon East”. It probably contained sex droids and cocaine, the company’s biggest sellers. He took in every detail, even noticing the license plate from the Georgia Confederacy. He couldn’t make out the plate number on account of the brownish long-dried blood plastered all over the back of the trailer. The semi-truck on the right was a newer model; octane red with a light grey enclosed trailer. Smears of blood covered the bottom half of the trailer and the license plate showed it was registered to the Sovereign State of New York. It read 5864-EATU.
Reece laughed at the irony of it. Life sure was stranger than fiction, even when that life was about to be over. He wasn’t particularly spiritual, but Reece took it as a sign from the gods that he was making the right choice and smiled. He hoped Karina would be okay and would find Naeva. That thought led him to wonder who else might still be alive and lamented that he would never see any of them again.